Palace and Dogs

On Saturday we decided to do some touristy things, so we went to Gyeongbokgung, one of the 5 palaces in Seoul. Yes, we've been here 7 months and still haven't gone to a palace. I wanted to go to Changdeokgung, since it was supposedly nicer, but it was only guided tours and we missed the time, so we went to the other one instead.

The Palace itself was a bit bigger than I thought, although definitely not as big as many of the palaces in China. There was a lot of buildings, and even a pond in the back end of the palace. The buildings were pretty empty and lifeless, it felt like we were going into a lot of ghost towns as we wandered through the complexes. In addition, I felt like they could have done more with the buildings, such as displayed more artifacts or sample clothing or furniture or food or anything, instead of closing off all the buildings and rooms. Nevertheless, it was still a pretty fun day.









After the Palace, we went down to Tomatillos again and got more Mexican food. This time, I got Chili Cheese Nachos and it was so good! I didn't take a picture since I was too busy inhaling it, but it was covered with cheese, and meat chili, and jalapenos.. oh drool. It was great.

When we were stuffed, we headed towards Hongdae. Hongdae is the district filled with young people, since it's in the area that had a few Universities. There was a lot of restaurants, clubs, and cafes. After wandering around a lot, getting lost, we finally found where we were looking for: the bau dog cafe.

Yes, a dog cafe. Not the kind you might think of, but this one is a cafe where you go, pay for a drink, and just sit there while tons and tons of dogs run around and jump on the couch and the windows and you. They had some tiny dogs and some huge massive Huskies there as well. Some dogs were very shy and nervous and some were pretty assertive in their wanting their treats, but overall, it was great just playing with the various dogs and holding some of the small cute ones.











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Hanging out with my friends

Last weekend, some friends of mine were visiting Korea, so I met up with them in Seoul and spent a day and a half with them, which was great. They weren't from Texas, so I haven't seen them in 2 or 3 years, so it was fun hanging out with them.

On Thursday night, we went to the Hongdae (the nightlife) district, which wasn't as big as I thought, but maybe we weren't in the main areas. We went to this spicy seafood stew place for dinner, which might've been a mistake because it was too spicy. In fact, we were dunking the red-coated shrimps and rice cakes into our water before eating it, and even then, our lips were on fire.



After breathing fire, we decided to hit up a nearby Noraebang (aka Korean Karaoke) for some singing fun, and even though I've been here for like 6 months plus, I haven't done it, so off we went. It was really fun, in fact! They had a TON of English songs as well, anything from oldies to pretty new stuff. We were singing old 90s pop songs like Spice Girls, TLC, and Savage Garden - it was so much fun!





We sang for quite awhile, and by the time we got back to their hotel, it was already 1, so we went to bed ready for another day.

The next day we were pretty lazy in the morning, but we did manage to hit up Insadong during the early afternoon. So after that, one of my friends' relatives came visiting from China, so we all went out for lunch, which was Bulgogi - two kinds in fact. One was grilled on the grill thing, and one was boiled in a soup, which later the broth was made into a noodle soup. The meat was tender and oh so delicious.








When our bellies were full, I wanted to show them Dr Fish, so we all went to that cafe where they bursted out laughing as soon as they put in their feet, since it was an oddly ticklish sensation. Still, we had a pretty good time.





The friend with the relatives left with them after that, so me and my other friend, we walked around the lights of Gangnam a little bit, before taking the subway to Dongdaemun, where they are supposedly some night markets. We didn't find too many stands, but there were some little stages with shows like belly dancers, and even a nausea-inducing looking ride. We stopped here for dinner, of which she had tofu stew and I had galbi (beef short rib) soup, delish! We just walked around the area and finally went back to the hotel.












The next day, I had to leave and come back to my apartment, and so that was my weekend. Click here to read more